Roadkill as a method of wildlife control, and eating roadkill

Hey, hi. Got a joke for you.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To show the deer how it's done.

I'm a new conservationist and a new hunter. I've returned to school as an adult to study conservation biology. In one of my courses, we read Jim Sterba's excellent book Nature Wars. He's a hunter who studied environmental history to take on arguments from anti-hunters. He argues that hitting animals with cars is an indirect method of controlling wildlife populations, and that people should embrace salvaging roadkill as a decent source of protein, maybe donating the tenderloin steaks to a food pantry. What are your thoughts? (Yes, he's American, but I think his logic applies to Canadians as well.)

Among the arguments:

- The massive numbers of animals killed by cars annually mean that roadkill is actually a method of wildlife control, even if it's unintentional

- Collisions between motor vehicles and wildlife cost society $6 billion to $12 billion annually in the USA

- For every dead animal you see beside the road, there's ten more you can't see in the weeds

- Statistics: an average white-tailed deer yields about sixty pounds of boned meat. Let's say half is edible. At a conservative estimate of a million roadkill deer per year, Americans alone are wasting upward of 30 million pounds of venision annually. That's roughly 120 million meals.

- The value of the discarded meat is between $270 million and $360 million a year in the States.

Again, that's in America, but lots about Jim's ideology applies here in Ontario as well.

Would you eat roadkill if it's fresh and most of the meat is unbruised? Or donate it to a pantry for the homeless and/or the poor?

I hit a deer with my truck quite a few years ago, in fact long before I started hunting. I called a friend who was a hunter and we salvaged the meat that was edible.

That meat cost me a fortune as I didn't have collision insurance. Given the opportunity I don't see anything wrong with salvaging meat from the road as long as the weather is cool and I witness the collision or know the timeline.

I've eaten roadkill. It was fine. Would I again? Sure, so long it was fresh,meaning I hit it, or someone I know and trust implicitly said it was fresh.

Population Control: Sure. Stands to reason that as a given region gets heavily populated, more are going to be hit. Effective? No, because cars won't discern between Spike or mature buck, matron or young doe, or even fawns and yearlings.

Firstly, I don't believe food kitchens or food banks will take road kills (or even seized animals) any longer because it hasn't been inspected by an authorized food inspector. Also the number of animals hit by vehicles in Ontario is minimal compared to what you'd see in the States. In the Sudbury district we had far more train kills than highway collisions with vehicles. We might see one deer or a moose a year along the highway and that's it.
Depending on how the animal was hit by the vehicle and how long it lay on the side of the road determines how much meat will be salvageable, if any. When an animal is hit and dies immediately all the blood throughout the body coagulates rendering that meat unsuitable unless processed immediately. Some cuts, like the straps and loins are often more recoverable simply because they are higher up on the animal. Its the legs that get cut out from under them and are the first to be bruised and bones broken. Those bone shards get driven throughout the quarter.
If you get an animal that's hit say, on the front quarter, the hinds and straps would be OK, again if processed soon. Also, an animal hit in the winter may be more useable than one hit in the heat of the summer.
I was able to salvage most of a cow and her 2 calves on Christmas morning because they were still alive from a train hit. I was able to process those animals and divided the meat up between a number of locals who were on welfare. Screwed my Christmas but they were happy. On another occasion something like 7 elk were hit at one shot around Burwash and none of those animals were recovered by the time they were reported.

If there’s that many Deer being hit by vehicles I think countless Deer suffering, peoples well being and our insurance premium going up would make it a easy decision that there’s a Deer management problem and more opportunities should be given to hunters to humanly harvest excellent venison.
Makes me remember the 90’s in the Ottawa valley.

In our area, we would have 20-30 deer collisions per year. We had a list of names to call and guys would come out and get them. That was just our service, OPP had many more. I’ve retrieved the odd deer as well. Some get hit in the head and neck, with very little damage done. As Sawbill said, food banks etc., won’t take them, even if they were butchered. Lots of good meat gets wasted for sure....

Two of my brothers got roadkill deer this winter.

About 20 years ago my dad hit a turkey with our van. Did about $1000 damage, My dad was so pissed a Turkey could smash the grill like that.

Remember my dad picking up the mangled bird out of the ditch, Cop says "no you dont have to take that, its ok"

Dad says, This is a $500 turkey, I'm eating it! Cop gave a weird look ,He probably thinks we were the biggest rednecks haha.

Actually a $1000 turkey, I think dad got maybe one part breast out of it ha

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Got a doe a few years ago on a road outside Barrie. Hit less than 20 mins prior. Once hung, my dad and I cut the damaged bit out of the hind quarter that got hit, and perfectly fine.

Last week, there was a flock of turkeys coming into town on the road. I stopped, and flashed high beams to oncoming cars as the birds were being slective when they ran across. A white Honda civic didn't slow down, and hit a hen in the tail end as she ran in front. I wandered into the ditch as she breathed her last, and into the truck she went.

Yes....zero issues with fresh kill at all.

Spooked a grouse in my yard. It flew towards the house and tried to do a burner climb but hit the soffit. Yum.
I commute and see lots of fresh kills but am not really equipped to store/transport a carcass full of ticks in my commuter car.Attachment 39894